HE15MAN?

[Political Hack]

Does Marshall's marijuana charge and Braxton Miller going out for the season increase Dak's chances before the first snap? I think we have to win 10-11 games to even have a snowballs chance in hell, but a 12-0 Ohio State is no longer a challenge to him potentially making New York. All things equal, I think Dak>Nick in voters' eyes for multiple reasons (better story of adversity, no weed issue, did it as State vs at Auburn, etc...).

I don't think a west coast QB can win it. I don't think the Big 12 can either... not this year. The only QB in the Big Ten that could've is down. It's SEC or ACC IMO right now... and it's going to be a QB. That doesn't leave a lot to choose from.

[STATEBALLIN]

I would have to think it's Jameis Winston's to lose until proven otherwise.

[chef dixon]

I just want to beat LSU.

[SDDawg]

I'm with Chef- let's beat LSU and then let the conversation explode (which it will).

Regarding Winston, dude needs to stay off Tinder and quit stealing from the grocery store if he wants to be treated seriously. He is a prime example of how most people on the planet suck.

[Quaoarsking]

Tebow & RG3 won the Heisman without 10-win seasons. I think if we make it to 9-3 and Dak has a "Heisman moment" he has a decent shot at an invite.

It will really depend on what everyone else does. Hopefully it's a year with 6 invitees rather than a year with 3.

[TaleofTwoDogs]

I'm with Chef- let's beat LSU and then let the conversation explode (which it will).

Regarding Winston, dude needs to stay off Tinder and quit stealing from the grocery store if he wants to be treated seriously. He is a prime example of how most people on the planet suck.


+1

[The Federalist Engineer]

Outside of wins and great stats, Dak's path to the Heisman is the same as Johnny Manziel. You have to go to Tuscaloosa and win. Nobody is really watching Big 10 football anymore, so it's really Winston, Petty, Gurley, Marshall, Hundley, and Marriota. The key SEC asset for Heisman is the CBS broadcast. For Dak, it sets up pretty much like this: Beat Auburn, eliminate Marshall. Beat LSU, become bonafide. Beat Bama in Bama, nobody from the list above can claim a similar piece of work.

(1) Gary Danielson will go ape-shit during the game and declare you the Heisman front runner
(2) Mark May gives you a helmet sticker for beating Alabama and declares you a warrior
(3) Jessie Palmer gets credit for being the early adopter and nullifies the Canadian stats of Baylor and Oklahoma players of the Big 12
(4) Winston will still be great on stats, but will not have a similar amount of quality wins in the ACC

Of course the scheme is predicated on Bama being a quality win when it happens and still being a quality win when the voting is done.

[SDDawg]

One thing I love about this thread: rewind the clock 12 months. Could you imagine having a serious conversation about this scenario and this team? I know I wouldn't have been able to wrap my brain around it (or the journey from there to here). Go Dawgs!

[Dawg61]

Almost impossible to win two Heisman so unless Winston is just ridiculously good this year and nobody else is even close you can eliminate him.

[War Machine Dawg]

Almost impossible to win two Heisman so unless Winston is just ridiculously good this year and nobody else is even close you can eliminate him.

Agreed. If Tebow and Johnny Football didn't win 2, I don't see anyone winning 2 ever aGAIN.

[starkvegasdawg]

Who was the last one to win two?

[Bully Dee Williams]

Archie Griffin is the only player to win two. He did that back in the 70s for Ohio St.

[dawgs]

I don't think a west coast QB can win it.

Well that's an awfully illogical statement. Mariota is already a preseason 1st team AA over last year's heisman winner, so i fail to see how you can think he can't win it.

[OurState]

Nobody is really watching Big 10 football anymore, so it's really Winston, Petty, Gurley, Marshall, Hundley, and Marriota.

The sportswriter so who cover the games do and they are the voters. To win we need at least ten wins, name guys to fade, other regions to split votes (so two good candidates in the west, Midwest and east) and a few Heisman moments.

[OurState]

Does Marshall's marijuana charge and Braxton Miller going out for the season increase Dak's chances before the first snap? I think we have to win 10-11 games to even have a snowballs chance in hell, but a 12-0 Ohio State is no longer a challenge to him potentially making New York. All things equal, I think Dak>Nick in voters' eyes for multiple reasons (better story of adversity, no weed issue, did it as State vs at Auburn, etc...).

I don't think a west coast QB can win it. I don't think the Big 12 can either... not this year. The only QB in the Big Ten that could've is down. It's SEC or ACC IMO right now... and it's going to be a QB. That doesn't leave a lot to choose from.

Don't use logic here. The Heisman is highly political. Usually different guys win the four different regions and the winner is who gets the most second place votes out of region. This is partially because reporters vote for there regions and partially because they are at the games they cover making it harder to watch as many games as fans do.

Getting invited to NY for the trophy presentation takes certain skill / check boxes:
1) be a top 100 player
2) play RB or QB
3) play on a team that wins lots of games
4) play in a system that allows you to put up huge stats
5) have a compelling story (play both ways, set an all time record plays against crap competition, have your fake girlfriend die tragically)

Realistically you need 4 of these.

Then it gets down to the voters...
Dak's problems will be
1) small market... We don't have as many newspapers, readers and voters as Michigan does. As someone once said, "if Peyton manning was a QB for Michigan and Charles Woodson was a DB for Tennessee is there any way Woodson wins?"
2) non-traditional team.... Over the last 25 years three and a half trophies have gone to schools that weren't super traditional football powers (Salaam from Colorado in 1994, Dayne from Woodson, RG3 from Baylor and JFF from A&M). Still Colorado, Wisconsin and A&M have better name recognition than we do. Baylor likely does as well.
3) mississippi insanity. QB.'s named Favre, McNair, Manning and Manning failed to win from Mississippi. The Mississippi sports writers are morons. They work so hard to stoke the rivalry and vote the rivalry that they let Bo Dirt beat Banks. If they voted for an all time all MS baseball team the vote for 1B would look like this: Will Clark would get 33% of the vote Sykes Orvice would get 30% someone from USM would get 25% and 12% would go to people from Millsaps or JSU. We can't even count on our own state to really get behind a candidate.

[Political Hack]

Well that's an awfully illogical statement. Mariota is already a preseason 1st team AA over last year's heisman winner, so i fail to see how you can think he can't win it.

I think they've only won 2 heisman's in the lasts decade plus. it's a publicly voted on award, and they've got the rapt time a slot. With every game being televised now, the voters are fatigued by the end of the day and aren't staying up until midnight to watch the first half of their printing games out west. It is what it is.

Also, the Midwest just lost it's front runner. The west is already split between UCLA and Oregon's QBs. Winston has to "beat himself" from last year and appear to no longer be a goof. The big12 has become largely irrelevant with the demise of Texas and OU.

It's going to be an east coast/southeast team and it's going to be a "no-name" non front runner type to start the season.

I'm too lazy to fix all the autocorrects in this message.

[Political Hack]

Don't use logic here. The Heisman is highly political. Usually different guys win the four different regions and the winner is who gets the most second place votes out of region. This is partially because reporters vote for there regions and partially because they are at the games they cover making it harder to watch as many games as fans do.

Getting invited to NY for the trophy presentation takes certain skill / check boxes:
1) be a top 100 player
2) play RB or QB
3) play on a team that wins lots of games
4) play in a system that allows you to put up huge stats
5) have a compelling story (play both ways, set an all time record plays against crap competition, have your fake girlfriend die tragically)

Realistically you need 4 of these.

Then it gets down to the voters...
Dak's problems will be
1) small market... We don't have as many newspapers, readers and voters as Michigan does. As someone once said, "if Peyton manning was a QB for Michigan and Charles Woodson was a DB for Tennessee is there any way Woodson wins?"
2) non-traditional team.... Over the last 25 years three and a half trophies have gone to schools that weren't super traditional football powers (Salaam from Colorado in 1994, Dayne from Woodson, RG3 from Baylor and JFF from A&M). Still Colorado, Wisconsin and A&M have better name recognition than we do. Baylor likely does as well.
3) mississippi insanity. QB.'s named Favre, McNair, Manning and Manning failed to win from Mississippi. The Mississippi sports writers are morons. They work so hard to stoke the rivalry and vote the rivalry that they let Bo Dirt beat Banks. If they voted for an all time all MS baseball team the vote for 1B would look like this: Will Clark would get 33% of the vote Sykes Orvice would get 30% someone from USM would get 25% and 12% would go to people from Millsaps or JSU. We can't even count on our own state to really get behind a candidate.

If you're trying to compare the level of coverage MS football got in the 60's to what it gets now, oure already behind in this discussion. The last 3 years the "front runners" have been left in the dust by season's end. Tebow and JFF will tell you "repeats" don't happen, and it's obvious the west coast can't win it, especially when two guys will be splitting votes out the gate (northwest coast/southwest coast).

You may want to deny it, but it's lining up perfectly for a darkhorse candidate to make a strong push out of the ACC or SEC.

[Offshore Dawg]

Archie Griffin is the only player to win two. He did that back in the 70s for Ohio St.

And he should not of won either.

[DownwardDawg]

I'm with Chef- let's beat LSU and then let the conversation explode (which it will).

Regarding Winston, dude needs to stay off Tinder and quit stealing from the grocery store if he wants to be treated seriously. He is a prime example of how most people on the planet suck.

Society has changed. This will have ZERO effect on his Heisman chances.

[Political Hack]

Society has changed. This will have ZERO effect on his Heisman chances.

the Heisman is close to tarnishing it's image. Middle Finger Johnny flashing cash, crab snatcher, Reggie, etc... they need a "good guy" story right now in the worst way. I don't know if the voters will recognize that, but they do.

[Reason2succeed]

If this season goes the way I hope it does Dak could end up with a statue in front of DWS. Bring a Heisman back to State would be epic for our program. He definitely has the character, the story, and the talent to do it. It is really about the team achievements.

[dawgs]

I think they've only won 2 heisman's in the lasts decade plus. it's a publicly voted on award, and they've got the rapt time a slot. With every game being televised now, the voters are fatigued by the end of the day and aren't staying up until midnight to watch the first half of their printing games out west. It is what it is.

Also, the Midwest just lost it's front runner. The west is already split between UCLA and Oregon's QBs. Winston has to "beat himself" from last year and appear to no longer be a goof. The big12 has become largely irrelevant with the demise of Texas and OU.

It's going to be an east coast/southeast team and it's going to be a "no-name" non front runner type to start the season.

I'm too lazy to fix all the autocorrects in this message.

1) you're assuming there's two strong candidates to split the votes.

2) it's called sportscenter and the Internet, just because Mariota or hundley (or an unknown candidate) plays a late game Saturday night, everyone still knows if they go off for 400 yards and 5 TDs. Care to point out what west coast player got screwed in the heisman vote recently? I'm sure there's a few you could argue, but by my recollection, there hasn't been anyone that clearly was better but lost because of an east coast bias.

So yeah, if Mariota or hundley or whoever puts up heisman caliber numbers (say Tebow/newton/jff/rg3/Winston type numbers) for a PAC 12 champ that makes the playoffs, to argue they won't win the heisman is just dumb.

[TrapGame]

If this season goes the way I hope it does Dak could end up with a statue in front of DWS. Bring a Heisman back to State would be epic for our program. He definitely has the character, the story, and the talent to do it. It is really about the team achievements.

Completely agree. Dak has the talent and life story to be a Heisman contender but it's going to take beating LSU in Death Valley to actually get the recognition. I don't think beating A&M and AU at home are good enough. He needs a high pressure road win.

[junctiondawg]

Please just stop all this talk until we are at least 6-0....

[Political Hack]

1) you're assuming there's two strong candidates to split the votes.

2) it's called sportscenter and the Internet, just because Mariota or hundley (or an unknown candidate) plays a late game Saturday night, everyone still knows if they go off for 400 yards and 5 TDs. Care to point out what west coast player got screwed in the heisman vote recently? I'm sure there's a few you could argue, but by my recollection, there hasn't been anyone that clearly was better but lost because of an east coast bias.

So yeah, if Mariota or hundley or whoever puts up heisman caliber numbers (say Tebow/newton/jff/rg3/Winston type numbers) for a PAC 12 champ that makes the playoffs, to argue they won't win the heisman is just dumb.

there's an obvious east coast bias. to suggest otherwise is dumb.

[Dawgsrule]

I think it's Mariota to lose this year. He has a good story, he's a great kid, and in the offense hell put up great stats. The biggest difference between Dak and Mariota is that he's on Oregon and they'll win a lot of games on national tv.

[Political Hack]

I think it's Mariota to lose this year. He has a good story, he's a great kid, and in the offense hell put up great stats. The biggest difference between Dak and Mariota is that he's on Oregon and they'll win a lot of games on national tv.

nobody on the east coast stays up to find out if Orgeon wins.

[ScoobaDawg]

Please just stop all this talk until we are at least 6-0....

5-1 and the talk can keep going, That sets up to 10-2 very possibly, any less. and then you are looking at 9-3 and the talk can pretty much die unless Dak puts up monster numbers and special plays.

[DownwardDawg]

Please just stop all this talk until we are at least 6-0....

No. We've never had the opportunity to talk like this. Enjoy it while you can. You may never have this chance again.

[DownwardDawg]

the Heisman is close to tarnishing it's image. Middle Finger Johnny flashing cash, crab snatcher, Reggie, etc... they need a "good guy" story right now in the worst way. I don't know if the voters will recognize that, but they do.

I agree Hack. The Heisman needs someone of Dak's character badly.

[Bubb Rubb]

nobody on the east coast stays up to find out if Orgeon wins.

You are underestimating the power of the WWL. If they get behind Mariota, that will be a factor. It sucks, but it is what it is.

I also think it's way too premature to be thinking along these lines. The landscape certainly affords an opportunity, but a lot of things have to go right.